Fox & Friends Plugs Anti-Abortion Movie "October Baby"

Fox News, as the news network for the right wing anti-abortion rights movement, is always willing to promote the memes and crusades of those who oppose women's reproductive rights. One of the more recent "pro-life" memes involves those who, supposedly, are abortion "survivors." They raise lots of money for the "pro-life" movement with their tales of how they, supposedly, were able, despite the best efforts of evil doctors and the wishes of evil women, to survive abortions. One such "survivor" told her tear jerking story to a very incredulous and sympathetic Shannon Bream in January. And now we have a tear jerking movie about an abortion survivor. Thus, it's no surprise that Saturday's Fox & Friends promoted the "faith based" (Christian, that is) "October Baby" as "a movie about the burden of hatred and the power of forgiveness." It's actually quite agenda driven; but so is Fox "News."

After saying that the film is getting "rave reviews" from critics, the weekend friends interviewed one of the film's actors, John Schneider, who discussed this movie about a girl who learns that she is (gasp) an abortion "survivor." Nicole Petallides (also of Fox Business) said "the movie looks unbelievable." Schneider claimed that the movie really isn't about religiosity but the toxicity of hatred. The chyron informed us that the movie "promotes Christian values." Schneider said that "it challenges" belief and that he had never heard the term "abortion survivor" until he read the script. (That's because it's a relatively new vehicle for the anti-choice guilt-trip). He hopes that this would be a source of conversations, about life, in families.

Along with sweetness and light, the film employs the ghostly character of the nurse who assisted with the abortion. As noted by the NY Times critic, this character's "pivotal speech, a gory portrait of fetal mutilation and maternal distress, conjures a vision of medical hackery that is clearly intended to terrify young women." She also says that "not even a dewy heroine and a youth-friendly vibe can disguise the essential ugliness at its core: like the bloodied placards brandished by demonstrators outside women’s health clinics, the film communicates in the language of guilt and fear." But you won't hear that on America's anti-abortion rights newsroom!